The 56-year-old German man could be behind the poisoning that killed 21 people.
Bielefeld authorities have decided to reopen the investigation in the ARI Armaturen case, after nearly two decades. According to the police report, a 56-year-old man could be behind the incident that claimed the life of 21 employees since 2000.
German Man Seen Putting Strange Powder in Co-Worker’s Lunchbox
On Wednesday, German authorities announced that a recently unearthed clue led them to reopen the ARI Armature case, a company that manufactures metal fittings.
According to the authorities, in late May, after reviewing a security tape, law enforcement officers discovered that a German man opened his co-worker’s lunchbox and sprinkled a powdery substance over it.
The man, identified only as 56-year-old Klaus O., has been taken into custody shortly after. The forensic lab determined that the substance Klaus sprinkled was lead acetate.
More than that, a police spokesperson declared that although the amount sprinkled wasn’t enough to kill an adult, it could have led to organ damage.
A search of Klaus’s home revealed that the man stockpiled the substance. The full measure of Klaus’s actions has been uncovered after the authorities dug into the employees’ medical records.
Since 2000, 21 people working at the Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock-based company, passed away or became ill.
Moreover, each of them showed distinct signs of heavy metal poisoning and the doctors couldn’t explain why. Over the course of two decades, all both one employee passed away. The causes of death were either cancer or heart attacks.
Conclusion
An employee that used to work for the company slipped into a coma two years ago. Another one told the authorities that his kidneys shut down unexpectedly, three months after meeting the German man.
University of Bonn’s Poison Information Center declared that the case is even more difficult as heavy metal poisoning is very hard to detect.
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